Trump supporters scramble to replace conservative media icon Drudge over belief he betrayed the president

Conservative media icon Matt Drudge, who was instrumental in both getting former President Bill Clinton impeached and in promoting the candidacy of President Donald Trump, has come under fire from Trump supporters who are upset by his coverage of the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry.

The Daily Beast's Will Sommer reports that Trump diehards have been scrambling to create rivals for the Drudge Report, the news aggregation site that has served as a hub for conservative media since the 1990s.

"The owners of the conservative Drudge-style aggregator sites -- with names like NewsAmmo, Rantingly, Liberty Daily, and WhatFinger -- say they’ve seen traffic booms since outspoken conservatives began accusing Drudge of an anti-Trump bias," Sommer writes. "Gab, the social media network popular with white supremacist extremists, recently launched its own Drudge-style news aggregator site, 'Gab Trends,' amid discontent from Trump supporters with Drudge."

Even though none of the Drudge clone sites have shown that they have the pull of the original, the anonymous founder of "Rantingly" says that he feels he has no choice.

"I just think the story he's telling right now is complete bullsh*t," he explained.

A source described as "close" to Drudge told CNN last month that the conservative media icon has grown "exasperated" with Trump and is excited to see the drama of the impeachment inquiry play out.